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The Sarstoon Protocol; it’s been several months since the governments of Belize and Guatemala discussed formalizing a proposed set of guidelines that would govern access to the southernmost reach of the country. The area has been under contention since 2015 when the Guatemalan Armed Forces ramped up its presence and control of the riverine access. […]
On Tuesday, the Belize Defence Force and the Louisiana National Guard reached a milestone in their state partnership program. It has been twenty years since Louisiana and Belize have been partnering on several local and regional programs including trainings in the jungle, disaster response and infrastructure. The mutually beneficial partnership has grown from year to […]
Despite assurances that Belizeans and the B.D.F. can freely traverse the Sarstoon, News Five has obtained a video of another, more recent confrontation in the river between a Guatemalan gunboat and a B.D.F. patrol. The incident occurred as recent as October seventeenth, but there had been no official comment until today when we approached B.D.F. […]
That incident occurred on the same day when a group of Belizean fishermen were held briefly by a Guatemalan coastal patrol vessel. The fishermen were fishing in the Gulf of Honduras when they were intercepted by the Guatemalan patrol at a point between the mouth of the Moho River, Toledo and Punta de Manabique, Izabal, […]
What was supposed to be a routine traffic stop on Northside Belize City this past Friday night became an explosive instance of alleged police brutality. The complainant is a young woman who was on her way to drop off a friend when she arrived at a police checkpoint along Newtown Barracks and was asked for […]
Written on October 12, 2016 | Posted in
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Senator Godwin Hulse has been adjusting to his responsibilities as Minister of Police since being assigned the additional portfolio during the last Cabinet reshuffle. The process has been shaping out rather quickly and today Minister Hulse was the keynote speaker at the passing out ceremony of a new cohort of officers. But what’s in store […]
Written on October 12, 2016 | Posted in
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According to Hulse, there is a need for reform within the Belize Police Department particularly where it concerns criminal prosecution. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Police “The whole crime scene investigation gathering mechanism is very loose in a sense, files are missing and all sorts of things. We have to tighten that and we have […]
Written on October 12, 2016 | Posted in
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Over the weekend of October first, a group of fishermen from the north were robbed at gunpoint while out at sea in southern Belize. It was reported that the fishers were approached by an unknown vessel and the occupants, who were said to be well armed, proceeded to rob and assault the fishermen. In an […]
Written on October 11, 2016 | Posted in
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The Belize National Coast Guard received a huge donation today in the form of a facility, personnel and other equipment valued at almost three million US dollars. With this new facility, the Coast Guard will be able to conduct maintenance on vessels at any time and even treat Coast Guard officers at a medic center […]
Written on October 11, 2016 | Posted in
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On Thursday, the Commander of the United States Southern Command, Admiral Kurt Walter Tidd concluded a two-day visit to Belize with a tripartite meeting held with Brigadier General David Jones of the Belize Defence Force and Chief of Defence Staff of the Guatemalan Armed Forces, Major General Juan Manuel Perez Ramirez. The meeting, which took […]
Accused murderer William Mason returns to court in the next few days, but he once boasted that he had a number of officers on his payroll, including members of the Gang Suppression and the Special Patrol Units. In fact, pictures surfaced of the former head of the GSU socializing at his farm. In an extended […]
Written on September 8, 2016 | Posted in
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A U.S. registered vessel was grounded on the barrier reef in the area of Hatchet Caye located east-northeast of Placencia over the weekend. Eight persons were onboard the civilian vessel: three Colombians, four Guatemalans and an American national. Guatemalan authorities have confirmed that the vessel left the Port of Livingston heading to Big Creek in […]
Written on September 5, 2016 | Posted in
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Today, Brigadier General David Jones, Commander of the Belize Defence Force, issued an update to last night’s report about a group of soldiers who went to verify that Guatemalan citizens had obeyed an order to depart Belizean territory where they had established a settlement and walked into gunfire which they returned. The shooting took place […]
Written on September 2, 2016 | Posted in
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There is a report that the B.D.F. came under fire on Wednesday in the Chiquibul National Park approximately two hundred and fifty-nine meters east of the border. The shooting at the patrol occurred at about eleven-thirty in the morning when the soldiers were heading to Retero Camp to follow-up on a previous order to leave […]
The Barrow Administration is reeling from scandal to scandal. Fresh off the Danny Mason saga interrupted by Hurricane Earl, the hustle of visas, nationalities and passports at the immigration department has come around full circle. Prime Minister Barrow returned from a medical check-up in the United States; he touched on a myriad of issues that […]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it today officially received the independent report on the killing of Guatemala minor Julio Rene Alvarado Ruano. The report carries a chronology of events on what transpired in the Chiquibul when the minor lost his life on the night of April twentieth. As we reported on Wednesday, […]
The O.A.S. investigation confirms that the incident occurred within the Adjacency Zone administered by Belize. On the twentieth of April, Julio Alvarado was killed and his father and brother were injured. The report points out that it is not the first time that the minor was inside the Cebada area of the Chiquibul, while the […]
The international campaign that the Guatemalan government launched against the B.D.F. and Belize requires skilful diplomatic work to undo any eroding of Belize’s credibility. Guatemala assumed the role of the aggressed painting Belize as the aggressor. There were heightened tensions along the border points where Guatemalan troops were beefed up in the west as well […]
Written on August 25, 2016 | Posted in
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When we caught up with B.D.F. Commander, Brigadier General David Jones, we also wanted to know about the state of affairs in the Chiquibul. According to Jones, the area where the shooting of Julio Alvarado took place is fraught with danger for the rangers and B.D.F. soldiers who put their lives at risk. He says […]
The Government of Belize supported an international independent investigation on the shooting death of the Guatemalan minor and four months later, the results showed the joint patrol of B.D.F. soldiers and FCD ranger acted in self defense and the B.D.F. was not responsible for the death of the fourteen year old. So why wasn’t the […]
Written on August 25, 2016 | Posted in
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Protecting Belize from attack and other dangers remains a primary concern for the Ministry of Defense. Today, various agencies within the national security apparatus came together to discuss what will later form what is known as the National Defense and Security Strategy. Hosted by a team of facilitators from the United States and the UK, […]
Written on August 24, 2016 | Posted in
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We headed over to the shelters in Burrell Boom where we spoke to a family of seven who left their home in the nearby Fresh Pond community seeking safety. Their arrival at the shelter was just prior to the upgrading of the storm to a hurricane. Fourteen year old Angie Cowo explains. Angie Cowo, […]
And since we had the opportunity, we also asked about an issue which has been pushed to the backburner simply because there’s no more space on the front-burner. What’s the status of the Belize Guatemala talks on a protocol government access to the Sarstoon? Jones says it’s in the works, but in the meantime all […]
With so many things happening on the news front, the situation at the Sarstoon has been pushed somewhat on the backburner. But from official indications, while public attention has been elsewhere, serious progress has been made. At a training session this week, B.D.F. Commander Brigadier General David Jones confirmed that all is peaceful in the […]
Access to the Sarstoon was one major concern for Belizeans – another was the flagrant, brazen, unhindered illegal fishing not only on our side of the Sarstoon but all the way north to Barranco. From reports we’ve gotten unofficially, that situation seems to have been somewhat quelled, or at least not so brazen. Brigadier General […]
